Saint Augustine wrote about “libido dominandi,” which is Latin for the “desire to dominate.” Saint Augustine said it was a natural desire that we all have, much like sexual desire or the desire for food for our stomach.
Sometimes our desire to serve and help is, unbeknownst to us, partly or mostly a matter of our desire to be Dominant in a give social context. The same can be said of other people in that social context too, of course.
So, it always helps to do Catholic practices such as Examination of Conscience, and Scripture reading, and reading of Lives of the Saints, and prayer, and receiving Sacraments, and so on, to help us see what our various motives are.
Most people most of the time never have 100% purely holy motives, as far as I know, and so I don’t think anyone should expect the impossible from themselves or other people.
Jesus and the Apostles gave strong commandments to be loving with fellow Christians and to not be angry with fellow Christians. Jesus and the Apostles also set the Church up as a Hierarchy, in which some appointed person have more power than those under them.
Even so, there are cases of canonized Saints who, with respect, remained persistent in working to start new ministries despite opposition from priests, bishops, or the virtually all of the laity. I’m thinking of Saint Francis, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross.
Then there is the case too of friar Bartolome de las Casas, O.P., who almost alone defended the human dignity and human rights of the native peoples living in the Americas when the Spaniards were carrying out their Conquistador operations in the Americas, with this involving mass rape, mass enslavement, mass murder, mass torture, mass forced conversions to Christianity, mass theft of property, and so on. Christopher Columbus, according to his own writings, believed the indigenous peoples of the Americas had no rights that the Europeans were obligated to respect, and he expressed an ungodly relish in exploiting their gullibility and defenselessness. Of course, the Aztecs were quite ruthless and cruel too, yet that doesn’t justify most of what the Spanish and English did to native peoples in the Americas.
So, in sum, I vote that you stay in your parish, and find ways to be amicable and be of service.
Also, in our times, the Internet is kind of like a Universal Parish in which we can also serve and start ministries as well wish.
Best wishes, A.M.G.D.
